After leading the Red Storm to its first winning BIG EAST record in more than half a decade, St. John’s standouts Posh Alexander and Julian Champagnie have been recognized by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association for their efforts.  Alexander was named the All-Met Rookie of the Year while both he and Champagnie earned spots on the All-Met First Team.

Alexander and Champagnie, both of whom hail from Brooklyn, are the first St. John’s teammates to earn First Team All-Met honors in the same season since Sir’Dominic Pointer and D’Angelo Harrison accomplished the feat at the conclusion of the 2014-15 campaign.

Alexander is the 14^th St. John’s player since 1982 and the second in as many seasons to win the MBWA All-Met Rookie of the Year, as Champagnie took home the honor last spring.

This past season, Alexander exploded onto the scene for the Red Storm, winning BIG EAST Freshman of the Year honors in addition to being named the BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year.  In garnering that latter accolade, Alexander joined an elite fraternity of student-athletes to win BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year as a freshman, affixing his name alongside Hall of Famers Patrick Ewing (1982), Alonzo Mourning (1989) and Allen Iverson (1995). 

In addition to leading the conference and ranking first nationally among freshmen with 2.6 steals per game, Alexander also averaged 10.9 points, 4.3 assists and 3.4 rebounds per contest.  His 4.3 helpers ranked first among BIG EAST freshmen and sixth overall in the league. 

A four-time BIG EAST Freshman of the Week, Alexander started 24 of his 25 appearances and reached double figures 13 times with two outings of 20-plus points.  His final double-figure scoring performance of the season nearly resulted in a triple-double, as Alexander finished with 15 points, nine assists and eight rebounds in a Feb. 16 win over Xavier at Carnesecca Arena.

Champagnie, a BIG EAST All-Freshman Team selection in 2020, enjoyed a breakout sophomore season for the Red Storm.  After averaging 9.9 points and 6.5 rebounds as a freshman in 2019-20, Champagnie led the BIG EAST in scoring at 19.8 points per game and ranked seventh in rebounding with 7.4 caroms per contest. 

A First Team All-BIG EAST selection and the winner of the conference’s most improved player award, Champagnie scored 12 or more points in all 25 of his appearances with 11 performances on 20-plus points, including a career-best 33 points against Creighton in Omaha.  The Bishop Loughlin product also led the league in free throw percentage (88.7%) while ranking fifth in 3-pointers made (2.4), fourth in steals (1.4) and ninth in blocks (1.0).  He became just the fourth player in St. John’s history to lead the BIG EAST in scoring over the course of a conference season, joining Chris Mullin (1983-84), Walter Berry (1985-86) and Marcus Hatten (2001-02).

A two-time BIG EAST Player of the Week and five-time BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll selection, Champagnie tallied seven double-doubles on the year, good enough for second in the conference in that category.  

Alexander and Champagnie led the Red Storm to an overall record of 16-11 this past season, including a 10-9 mark in league play.  After beginning BIG EAST action with a record of 2-6, St. John’s went 10-3 over its final 13 league outings.  The Red Storm’s only loss of non-conference play came at the hands of BYU, a team that went on to earn a no. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament. 

For more information on the St. John’s Athletics Department fans are encouraged to click on the link seen here:

St. John’s University Athletics – Official Athletics Website (redstormsports.com)